will, and with entire willingness to wait all the days of their appointed time, till their final change shall come. The same remarks are applicable to many other passages in these hymns. Hymn 68.-"How happy is the pilgrim's lot!" This might properly be entitled The Christian Pilgrim. It is one of the few hymns in the Collection that were composed by the Rev. John Wesley, and is unquestionably a beautiful piece of poetry. Very few persons, however, can adopt all the verses as applicable to their own state. Some of the language is so strong, that even Mr. John Wesley—pilgrim as he was in a very eminent degree-as dead perhaps, as any real Christian could be, to the honors, riches, and enjoyments of this world-could not adopt it absolutely, and without qualification. It was only in a comparative and restricted sense that even he could say "No foot of land do I possess, No cottage in this wilderness ". In the last two verses, we find the writer, notwithstanding his characteristic sobriety and selfpossession, so borne away by the train of thought that he was pursuing, and by the poetical inspiration which he felt, that he slides, almost imperceptibly, into the sentiment so often ex and prays pressed in his brother's poetry, "Now let the pilgrim's journey end: for an Among the hymns describing Heaven, are some of peculiar excellence; in which the poet has very happily availed himself of the beautiful and impressive images, furnished by Holy Scripture. Five of these hymns (70, 73, 77, 78, 79) are in the anapostic measure; in which the first foot is usually an iambus; the second and third feet, anaposts. Ĭ lōng | to běhōld | hîm årrāyed— A way with our sorrow and fear Here each line contains five short, and three long syllables; and the metre has in it something peculiarly pleasing. It is capable of all the softness and delicacy, which are proper for the most solemn and pathetic subjects; and at the same time of all the animation and fire, which correspond with a joyful and triumphant strain : as examples of the former may be mentioned Hymns 48, 49, 53; of the latter, Hymns 73, 220, 228. But its predominating characteristic is animation and cheerfulness. Hymns 69, 71, 72, are all excellent. There is something very striking in the calm and dignified way, in which, in verses 1 and 2 of Hymn 69, the Christian is represented as going to meet his last enemy, death: not dismayed at the prospect, not alarmed by any apprehensions as to the result of death; but confidently anticipating a complete victory, and an immediate admittance into glory. Verse 4 is calculated to check any vain curiosity that we may be disposed to indulge, as to the nature of the enjoyments, reserved in the heavenly world for the saints of God. Hymn 71 is a beautiful illustration of the pilgrimage of true Christians, who are journeying through this world towards the new Jerusalem, the city of the living God. That is a fine idea, and equally correct, at the close of verse 5 "That palace of our glorious King, We find it nearer while we sing." If love be the very element of heaven-inasmuch as God is love-the more of that love we obtain, while on earth, the more do we approximate to the state of the blessed spirits around the throne. If we are getting an increase of divine love, we are verily rising nearer and nearer to heaven itself; and the above-quoted line is no longer hyperbole. Hymn 73-"Away with our sorrow and fear.”— This is an admirable hymn, in which the beauty of the language and the grandeur of the imagery are set off to the best advantage by the liveliness of the metre: all according exceedingly well with the feelings produced by the contemplation of such objects. Perhaps the closing lines of the last verse need some qualification— "And all the enjoyment above Consists in the rapturous gaze." The beatific sight of God in Christ will undoubtedly be the summum bonum—the chief felicity of glorified saints-the all in all of heaven itself. Yet we should not imagine that there will be any thing like a monotony-a perpetual sameness of enjoyments. On the contrary, there is good reason to believe that there will be novelty and variety in that world of purity and bliss; an eternal succession of pleasures, springing ever fresh and new, from the inexhaustible fountains of divine love. Hymns 75, 76 are two fine and excellent compositions, founded on that delightful portion of Holy Writ, Revelation vii. 9 to 17. The metre also is solemn, dignified, and well adapted to the subject. CHAPTER VI. REMARKS ON VARIOUS HYMNS, CONTINUED. THE hymns, praying for a blessing, 81 to 90, are all excellent in their kind, and better adapted than many of the others to general use, in a large and promiscuous assembly. There is something very affecting in the appeals to the compassionate Redeemer, in verses 5, 6 of Hymn 82, on behalf of careless and perishing sinners "Why should they die, when thou hast died; Hast died to bear their sins away?" "Why should the foe thy purchase seize ?" These are sentiments into which all ministers of Christ should especially enter; and by such considerations their zeal in the service of their blessed Master ought to be inflamed more and more. Hymn 84 was composed by Mr. Charles Wesley in June 1746, before preaching at Portland in Dorsetshire, where the people were mostly employed in the stone quarries. The phraseology of the first verse "Strike with the hammer of thy word, And break these hearts of stone" |